Soul Disk
by Ceramic Quill
Summary: After Loki attacks the Avengers, S.H.E.I.L.D and the Initiative discover a larger plan behind the attacks.
1. Chapter 1

The wind howled dragging him into the eternal abyss of the void as Thor jumped after him, attempting to save him from being lost. Loki was just able to catch onto Mjölnir's handle. The All-Father rushes in to save his son from falling in as well. _Please don't let me fall. Please. I am so sorry. Please don't let me go. I was so close. _"I could have done it father! I could have done it! For you! For all of us!" _I am worthy of you father!_

Odin looked at the man he had probably once proudly called son. "No Loki."

Loki looked into his brother's eyes with unconcealed fear, seeing his own reflected fear, disburdened himself from Thor and Mjölnir. He watched as Thor, the Bridge, Asgard disappeared. Loki held his eyes shut as he fell further into the void, not certain as to what will happen.

Nothing and everything held him close. His beating heart as the only sound, beats louder than ever before, the heavens changes so quickly. His heart ached. _I cannot have the admiration I so sincerely sought after. I made so many mistakes. I should never have acted as I had, no one would accept me being more a shadow. Abandoned by the people I loved and cared for more than anyone, and the future I had dreamed of that made life bearable, will never be. But that is okay, because I have myself, and in the end that is all I'll ever have._

After an indefinite point of time, Loki unfastened his eyes terrified and uncertain of what he'd see of what was causing his physical pain. He calmed his heart rate to the universe's low ominous and eternal song. One that would never leave his mind, and he didn't want it to. It was beautiful. Perfect. Calming to hear something other than his own thoughts go over everything, anything and nothing.

Notwithstanding the intense pain his body was induced to, the universe was glorious and outlying afar from just a simple beauty. The view hit him, and hit him hard. He felt like he was looking at a secret. People were not supposed to see this, it was too sacred. Worlds and galaxies passed him by. Turning his head and shutting his eyes, ashamed, he looked away. He was undeserving to be a witness of such eternal beauty. How could Heimdall see all this vastness of eternity? Colors he has never witnessed were painted into the heavens. The structures of Universes uniquely worked from each other.

The grandeur of the void struck Loki as something more than just beautiful. Something he can picture so clearly, but words fail to explain fully. It was like looking into absolute paradise, a heaven.

But entirety was still nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki found himself on the floor, of an unknown and dark location. The darkness here was in sharp disagreement with the obscurity of the heavens. For a moment, he felt relieved, he was somewhere safe from nothingness. That feeling was short-lived. Loki panicked, his limbs felt stiff, unbending, numb and heavy. There was a distinct sound, the quiet scraping of metal on stone followed by strange tapping and shuffling, which told him that he was somehow no longer lost in the void. He tried to blink his eyes, the world around him was exceptionally blurry. He went to rub them to clear them, while trying to adjust himself from the ground, but his feet and hands were chained short to the floor.

The tapping noises nearby became more prominent, and he rapidly realized it was less the sound of tapping than it was a soft dissonance of claws, moving armor and weapons, clanking together in anticipation. He tried to make his bondage break with spells, but the chains were not affected in the least.

_What was this? Why would someone be doing this? _There was, he concluded, not much that could be asked of from a fallen prince, in this world, in this lifetime. Unless Odin sent someone after him, wherever he may be.

A large figure appeared slowly walking towards him, another smaller man lurking behind him. The large silhouette towered over Loki, the hidden clinking noises grew louder.

"Asgardian," the shadowy figure in the background pronounced "You are in the presence of Thanos. Leader the Chitauri. The Tesseract has awakened. It is on the little world of Midgard. A human realm. They would wield its power, but you know its workings as they never will. We offer you a trade of interests. The world will be yours." The man directed Loki's attention back to the ogre-like man in front of him. "And the universe his. And our force, our Chitauri, will follow. And the humans, what can they do but burn? We know of you and your powers. In return we will aid you in achieving power beyond your dreams as we crush and destroy all the nine realms."

"What? Why should I ever desire to help you?" Loki scoffed at the shadowed creature, with a coarse voice from disuse. "I have heard about your species; fowl creatures like you merit a place to rot away in. Go crawl back and flirt with your mistress, you curdled staggering mutant." Spitting in their direction.

The creature scorned a snarl at the comment, but largely ignored it. "Yet here you are, cast away into a void, where you land in this forsaken land beside us, right into our hands."

"Whatever this is, whatever you think you're doing, it won't work. I won't give you what you want."

"We can give you a fate worse than death. We can make your soul crumble into pieces, so many pieces you will beg for Hela to take your life."

Loki shrugged. "What happens to me is no longer significant. You may be able to claim my life, but I can put an empire forever out of your reach- and when all is said and done, which of the two matters more?" Loki questioned whether he should have just agreed to the deal.

His visitor evaluated him for a moment. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "This does not bode well for you. You see, we do not need you alive, for to assist us, we just need your precious and significant abilities."

The creature looked to Thanos, whom in turn responded by a gesture and the tapping noises outside gave way to snarls and unhuman growling. "We present you with three options. Willing, unwilling, or death."

"Is there even a difference?"

"No." There was a rush of bodies into the room, and in seconds the dark room was filled with antediluvian steel, pain, and blood. The man could do nothing to evade them.

The Other grabbed the fallen prince's neck, pressing a small metal circle to his forehead, the noises faded into silence, the body dragged away to be further taken care of.

"He will be ready to lead soon enough, my lord."


	3. Chapter 3

Some years post Avengers…

Romanoff fired at the shadow's vicinity, as gunfire ripped and screamed all about and the orderly nature of things disintegrated in the streets of New York. "Cover me! I HAVE A CLEAR SHOT!" She exhaled, waiting for the perfect moment to snipe the god in the face, a sure death as any. He turned around, staring exactly at Romanoff. She took the shot, but the bullet never found its target. Loki vanished from sight before impact. Clint was beside her in a moment, shooting cleanly at the god's acquired human-extremists, but then collapsed like a ragdoll as bullets hit him with impossible, horrible precision from the middle of the killing hell, ripping a shoulder open, and a few nailing him in a leg.

She sensed his presence before she had time to react. Lifting her up by her hair, he threw her backwards against a wall. Her back hit something along the way, cutting into it. He walked over to the agent, twirling a knife in his hands. Clint pulled out a gun, shooting the god in the back. Loki buckled surprised, picked himself up wincing. Turning to him, he made a gesture, causing Clint to be flung at an adjacent wall. He teleported away.

"Natasha! You alright?" He picked himself up, his leg wounded, but his shoulder was making it difficult to concentrate.

"Yeah. Though I think I might have broken an arm. I can't move it."

On ground level, Steve ran and dove for new cover, he fought and dodged as best as he could. A flash of Thor's lightning lit up dust and smoke from the havoc. Citizens were yelling and screaming in total panic amid the ear-shredding chaos. Rogers couldn't tell the difference between citizens and the attacks from the terrorists. He could barely notice who he was fighting, some wore armor, some looked familiar, and some looked like ordinary citizens. If they had a weapon, they were the bad guys. If they didn't, avoid contact. The only obvious enemy in the attack was Loki. Clearly he was leading them. The Hulk could occasionally be seen being driven mad by the teleporting nemesis. Shockwaves crushing and smashing everything that was not destroyed by grenades from Loki's minions.

Somewhere in the destructive madness, Loki picked them off one at a time, fast and dark in rapid succession. Grenades lobbed and pieces of buildings fell and shattered in bursts of explosions, pieces crashing down like rain. Stark was amid the groups of people, weeding out attackers from victims, and catching falling debris from crushing the people. One such piece fell onto Thor, attempting to push the cement block off him, struggled to stand up and saw in a brain-dazed slow-motion, the dark shape that ran through the burning fires to him. His dark figure with eyes like fire, killing as he came, hair askew and dark against a background of fire. Like a vision of hell. Loki laughed as he stood above Thor. Kneeling down, Loki held a small metal disk, placing it against Thor's head. Thor called to Mjölnir, uncomprehending the mortal threat that loomed. Thor screamed as his head felt like it was being cracked into itself.

Stark had no idea what was going on between Thor and his brother, but judging by Thor's reaction, it was definitely not good. "Guys! Thor needs backup now!" Steve Rogers threw his shield at Loki, but Thor already collapsed, Loki laughed while disappearing with the Asgardian, the shield hitting nothing but destroyed concrete.

All fighting from Loki's minions stopped, and all collapsed to the floor. Citizens that were unable to escape during the attack, lay wounded on the streets, many dead.

"What the heck?" Stark looked around in confusion at the Hulk, he didn't seem to know either. "JARVIS. Send a message to Coulson that the area is contained, but we lost Thor. I don't know if he's dead or not, but Loki took him. JARVIS has already sent contact to the medical. Also we need a lot of handcuffs. Maybe fifty or something."

Captain America walked over to the place Thor and Loki disappeared from. "Hey guys, Mjölnir." Pointing at Thor's weapon.

"Update. We have Thor's hammer. It didn't leave with him. I think we really him." Stark updated.

Steve Rogers picked up the hammer, eyeing around. "Does this mean he's dead?"

"I don't know." Looking up, Stark saw two figures limping, their own. "Clint. Natasha. Glad to see you are alive. I thought you said you had a clear shot."

"We did. But as you can see, this happened." Natasha recounted.

"Got a few of Coulson's latest tracking bullets planted in him though." Clint quipped, and rolled his eyes, "Though we all know those would heal in no time."

"SHIELD will be here any moment, they'll patch you up."

"What happened?" Clint enquired pointedly at Captain holding Mjölnir.

"Loki took Thor. Anything else, we don't know."


	4. Chapter 4

Thor found himself in an unaccountable space of white luminescent light reflected on the equally white and bare floor.

Looking around confused, Thor noticed something in the distance. Running towards it, he could make it out as a person sitting on the floor, his back slightly turned towards him. He was playing around with his hands, turning them blue to white. Thor recognized him immediately. He grabbed his arm lifting him and shook him violently, nailing him in the face. Surprised, the man heaved a freezing spell on his attacker, but when he registered his face, he warded it away.

"By bloody Hel..!? Thor? Brother! What a marvelous honor it is to see your face once more! How did you come to be here?" He smiled enthusiastically.

Thor rapidly and unreservedly attacked Loki. "How dare you escape your prison! How dare you attack Midgard! How dare you hurt the Earthlings, they have done you no wrong! Shall we just cut off that head of yours for good!? How would that work for you, brother?" Each fist hit its mark. Loki hit the floor, he veered away from further abuse from his brother.

"Thor..! THOR! CALM DOWN!" Loki reestablished the previous spell, and backed off a few paces. Pausing to think for a good while. He paced around Thor, while the brother cursed him colorfully. Loki stopped pacing, and turned to him.

"Let us be reasonable, Thor. First off, brother mine, I have never been in prison. Below that, I attacked you, not the humans you adore so absent mindedly it was their choice to get involved. Everything else, wasn't me. And above these, I do not see how this actually matters now. We are dead, and are serving eternity in the same place, so that means you must have done something exceptionally out of your character to be here, or I must have done a lot of good in my life and both you and your father were critically wrong about my antics among the living." Loki released Thor from the spell.

"What in the nine realms are you talking about?"

"Surprisingly, the populace here are exceptionally rare and minimal, indeed. I have found only Midgardians as of yet exceptions made of yourself, a lawyer, a few politicians, a multitude of ordinaries, and a few zealot cultists. It is surprisingly rare to find someone here with actual intellect. They keep their distance, as they apparently recognize me and my trickeries. I wonder where they all disappear to… Please stay close by or I may never find you in this vast forsaken place again, as it becomes quite dull here. This was the first spout I had of fun in ages. I wonder how an eternity of people whom pass away, just so little in comparison to this artless land."

"What?"

"Oh, for goodness sake. I will just stop talking, you aren't even listening."

"You can never stop talking. You like your voice too much."

"And you like yourself too much."

"So you believe us to be dead?"

"So you were listening! I assume so, but no promises made; the lawyer was confronted by his brother, and the cultists attacked New York, and the others likewise. I think I remember dying. I don't think this place is Valhalla, Fólkvangr, Hel or Helgafjell, or anything I know or read in the Library. I now believe those scholars and priest claiming about the afterlife knew nothing of what they were talking about, if this is it. I have seen a far more impressive heaven that this jilted lack of habitation. Say brother, what happened to you?"

"I would like to ask the same question." Folding his arms in irritation.

"Forgive me, I am a hypocrite, I will not tell you. However, what one would notice is the fact that I am carrying magic in a presumed afterlife. This is something I am genuinely surprised at. The only spell I am unable to construct would be teleportation."

Thor started pacing around, unnerved. "No, forgive me brother, but you are the one who sent us here. I do believe you are playing the part of a fool. You shall not deceive me with this peculiar trick. Direct me back, so that I may join the others before the new city of York is destroyed once more. If you do not reverse this parlor trick of yours, due punishment will be inflicted quite presently! My friends are in dire need of help from the pain you have inflicted. They have done nothing wrong against you, save it be the fights you have brought about with them!"

"Are you sure I am the one who likes to talk? Once again, I couldn't have been involved with what is going on with your life prior to your arrival. Assuming we are indeed dead, I assume I have been dead anywhere from a day to maybe a year... I actually have no idea."

"Loki, I just saw you in New York a few moments ago. Don't take me for a fool, and jest and lie to my face! You put me here!"


End file.
